Sam Zurier’s June East Side Monthly Article

In my May column, I wrote about changes in the leadership of the Providence School Department. We recently learned that change is also coming to the leadership of the Rhode Island Department of Education (“RIDE”), as Commissioner Peter McWalters announced he will be leaving the position next year. As was true for outgoing Superintendent Donnie Evans, Providence and Rhode Island can thank Commissioner McWalters for a record of dedicated service, in his case going back to the start of his term in 1992. This month, I will discuss the Commissioner’s role in improving public education both statewide and in Providence, and how that role could change through the coming transition

While the job description of Providence Public Schools Superintendent has remained stable over time, the position of Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education is more dynamic. When Commissioner McWalters came to Rhode Island in 1992, RIDE’s primary task was to supervise the certification of public school teachers. In those days, local school districts bore almost the entire responsibility of designing and delivering a public education program to children in the district.

The Commissioner’s role has changed markedly in the past decade, as Rhode Island and the Federal government have adopted the role of supporting standards-based reform. Standards-based reform embodies a noble concept, namely that each child has the right to receive an adequate education based not just on the inputs of hours of classroom instruction by certified teachers, but also based on the outputs of developing defined skills and knowledge based on standardized tests. To advance this concept, the General Assembly assigned to RIDE the tasks of defining the standards that every child should meet and supervising local districts’ programs to meet those standards.

Under this new framework, the Commissioner has become the point person to hold the entire system together. He works with the Board of Regents to develop educational standards. He works with local districts to ensure that the standards are appropriate, and to encourage local districts to meet the standards. In a limited number of extreme cases, he and RIDE can intervene in local districts to direct their management to improve performance against the standards. He also works with the General Assembly and the Governor, reporting to them about the State’s overall public education program, as well as particular areas of concern that require the Commissioner’s “hands on” intervention.

The State’s recent intervention at Hope High School provides an example of how the Commissioner can play a major constructive role. First, the Governor identified Hope High School as a demonstration project for the State’s overall program. He requested $600,000 in additional State funds to support the effort. Commissioner McWalters hired an expert to oversee the reform of the school. The Commissioner then met with the Providence Superintendent (Melody Johnson) and the head of the Providence Teachers Union and directed them to form a plan to carry out the reforms, making all necessary waivers and/or adjustments to the contract to achieve the goal. Because the District and the Union were reluctant to surrender local prerogatives, this took a large amount of jawboning by the Commissioner, ultimately backed up by the warning that he had the legal authority to take over Hope High School and run it from his own office if the School Department and the Union could not develop a satisfactory plan. After a few months of spirited negotiations, the Union and the School Department reached a new agreement, and a series of promising reforms were introduced at Hope High School.

While Hope High School is a promising example, a number of factors limit the prospects of broader improvements. RIDE lacks the staff to supervise future projects – instead, the General Assembly funded the Hope High School special master through the $600,000 grant. Similarly, reforms often require additional funds for the affected schools, and the special legislative grant underwrote these reforms at Hope. There also is a question about the full extent of the Commissioner’s legal authority – by persuading the union and the School Department to agree on a plan, the Commissioner was able to avoid a court challenge concerning the authority of the State to override existing contracts.
The Commissioner’s multiple responsibilities also place limits on his time and effectiveness. To be effective, the Commissioner must spend a significant amount of “quality time” getting to know the Board of Regents, State elected officials (such as the Governor and the General Assembly leadership), local education authorities (selected school board leaders and superintendents) and, in the case of Hope High School, the teachers’ union and the principals for the school. There is so much to do, and only so many hours each day to do it. Finally, the Commissioner’s multiple responsibilities make him accountable to a broad variety of stakeholders who often have conflicting agendas – for example, what if the General Assembly and the Governor do not see eye to eye, and what if the views they share are rejected by local authorities? The Commissioner is not in a good position to “boss around” any of these people – instead, his job is to encourage them to work together. As a result, reform advocates often are frustrated by the gap between the ideal visions set forth in RIDE’s policy statements and the actual improvements that RIDE has been able to accomplish through the exercise of its regulatory and supervisory powers.

To conclude, the Commissioner’s job can be incredibly difficult, and Commissioner McWalters deserves credit and praise for Hope High School, as well as the creation of State standards and a credible standardized test for Rhode Island. With that said, there is much more to do. For example, we are in desperate need of a system to evaluate the quality of our teachers. Such a system could improve teacher quality and also help solve the “bumping” problem by providing a credible alternative to seniority-based staffing decisions. Commissioner McWalters has discussed RIDE’s opportunity to initiate a state-wide teacher evaluation system, but it has not yet happened. If he dedicated his final year to solving this single problem, it would be a very productive year. Because Providence’s challenges have made the entire district subject to State intervention, Commissioner McWalters also could leave us an enormous parting gift by directing more of his final year’s focus to using RIDE’s authority to solve our district’s issues.

As my description suggests, the State Commissioner’s job has, in theory, great authority and great responsibility. It is difficult for one human being to make all of these pieces fit together, and Commissioner McWalters has made some valuable contributions by building up capital with various stakeholders and then expending that capital on a few, selected priorities. In the coming year, we hope he spends down his remaining capital to help Providence, and we hope his successor continues on such a path.